The niche and paratextual industries of games and play

Escaping the Netherworld – First Episode: Materiality

In the previous week, I had proposed an idea for Escaping The Netherworld as my individual board game. Working on the initial concept I have for this game, I experimented with the most fundamental components – the board and cards. The game is a story of the sinners trying to get out of Hell in one piece, thus the idea of splitting the board into a map of the Netherworld would enhance the role-playing experience.

The conceptualisation of Hell in Buddhism embraces a multi-layered meaning with Karma being one of its core philosophy. A pool of character in my game will have certain perks along with their sins from the past, thus making them weak against certain monsters.

The first prototype of the map

THE BOARD

The objective of the game orbits working together to run away, avoiding the monsters at all cost, learning a truth about their sins and escaping…